Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

78 An Instruction of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my law, Incline your ear to sayings of my mouth.

² I open with a simile my mouth, I bring forth hidden things of old,

³ That we have heard and do know, And our fathers have recounted to us.

⁴ We do not hide from their sons, To a later generation recounting praises of Jehovah, And His strength, and His wonders that He hath done.

⁵ And He raiseth up a testimony in Jacob, And a law hath placed in Israel, That He commanded our fathers, To make them known to their sons.

⁶ So that a later generation doth know, Sons who are born, do rise and recount to their sons,

⁷ And place in God their confidence, And forget not the doings of God, But keep His commands.

¹⁰ And the sons of Israel encamp in Gilgal, and make the passover on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening, in the plains of Jericho;

¹¹ and they eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow of the passover, unleavened things and roasted [corn], in this self-same day;

¹² and the manna doth cease on the morrow in their eating of the old corn of the land, and there hath been no more manna to the sons of Israel, and they eat of the increase of the land of Canaan in that year.

⁶ And the seven messengers who are having the seven trumpets did prepare themselves that they may sound;

⁷ and the first messenger did sound, and there came hail and fire, mingled with blood, and it was cast to the land, and the third of the trees was burnt up, and all the green grass was burnt up.

⁸ And the second messenger did sound, and as it were a great mountain with fire burning was cast into the sea, and the third of the sea became blood,

⁹ and die did the third of the creatures that [are] in the sea, those having life, and the third of the ships were destroyed.

¹⁰ And the third messenger did sound, and there fell out of the heaven a great star, burning as a lamp, and it did fall upon the third of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters,

¹¹ and the name of the star is called Wormwood, and the third of the waters doth become wormwood, and many of the men did die of the waters, because they were made bitter.

¹² And the fourth messenger did sound, and smitten was the third of the sun, and the third of the moon, and the third of the stars, that darkened may be the third of them, and that the day may not shine -- the third of it, and the night in like manner.

¹³ And I saw, and I heard one messenger, flying in the mid-heaven, saying with a great voice, `Wo, wo, wo, to those dwelling upon the land from the rest of the voices of the trumpet of the three messengers who are about to sound.'

9 And the fifth messenger did sound, and I saw a star out of the heaven having fallen to the earth, and there was given to it the key of the pit of the abyss,

² and he did open the pit of the abyss, and there came up a smoke out of the pit as smoke of a great furnace, and darkened was the sun and the air, from the smoke of the pit.

³ And out of the smoke came forth locusts to the earth, and there was given to them authority, as scorpions of the earth have authority,

⁴ and it was said to them that they may not injure the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but -- the men only who have not the seal of God upon their foreheads,

⁵ and it was given to them that they may not kill them, but that they may be tormented five months, and their torment [is] as the torment of a scorpion, when it may strike a man;

⁶ and in those days shall men seek the death, and they shall not find it, and they shall desire to die, and the death shall flee from them.

⁷ And the likenesses of the locusts [are] like to horses made ready to battle, and upon their heads as crowns like gold, and their faces as faces of men,

⁸ and they had hair as hair of women, and their teeth were as [those] of lions,

⁹ and they had breastplates as breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings [is] as the noise of chariots of many horses running to battle;

¹⁰ and they have tails like to scorpions, and stings were in their tails; and their authority [is] to injure men five months;

¹¹ and they have over them a king -- the messenger of the abyss -- a name [is] to him in Hebrew, Abaddon, and in the Greek he hath a name, Apollyon.

¹² The first wo did go forth, lo, there come yet two woes after these things.